Apparatus for hardening spinning-rings.



PATENTED JUNE 20, 1905.

0. E. NUTTING. APPARATUS FOR HARDENING SPINNING RINGS.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 1'7, 1905.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

Ta) em exazkfi' Z? $242128 3 PATENTED JUNE 20, 1905.

0. E. NUTTING.

APPARATUS FOR HARDENING SPINNING RINGS.

APPLICATION FILED APR.17.1905.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2.

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lay/f UNITED. STATES iatented June 20, 1905.

PATENT OF ICE.

CHARLES E. NUTTING, OF HOPEDALE, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO DRAPER COMPANY, OF HCPEDALE, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORA- TION or MAINE.

APPARATUS FOR HARDENING SPINNING-RINGS- SPECIFIGATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 792,917, dated June 20, 1905.

Application filed April 17, 1905. Serial No. 255,890.

1'0 (LN, whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, CHARLES E. NUTTING, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Hopedale, county of Worcester, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Apparatus for Hardening Spinning-Rings, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like characters on the drawings representing like parts.

This invention has for its object the production of apparatus for facilitating the hardening of spinning-rings and the like whereby the operation is simplified and made more rapid.

It has been found that the interior of a spinning-ring particularly requires hardening in order to resist the wear of the traveler when thrown outward and that the under surface of the outer flange and the adjacent surface of the web of the ring should also be hardened.

Means have been devised for effecting the hardening operation by hand, the ring after being heated to the proper hardening temperature being held on a mandrel which is then plunged into a bath of a cooling medium, and in United States Patent No 709,512, dated September 23, 1902, a machine is shown and described for automatically inserting an arbor in a heated ring and then immersing the ring and arbor in a cooling-bath. The arbor in such apparatus fills the interior of the ring, and in practice it has been found that the internal surface of the ring is so protected by the arbor that the cooling fluid is prevented from acting thereupon with the proper effect, so that the rings are imperfectly or insufficiently hardened at the portion most desirable.

In my present invention I have devised means to hold the ring in position in such mannor that its interior is left wholly unobstructed, so that the cooling liquid has free access thereto, and I also provide for preventing distortion of the ring by securely embracing the periphery of its external flanged portion. At the same time the external surface of the ring requiring hardening is left free to be acted upon by the cooling-bath.

My invention is particularly adapted for treating double-flanged reversible rings, a well-known and extensively-used form, the web of the ring having an inner and outer annular flange at top and bottom.

The various novel features of my invention will be fully described in the subjoined specification and particularly pointed outin the following claims.

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a ring-hardening apparatus embodying one form of my invention. Fig. 2 is an enlarged detail, partly in section, on the line 2 2, Fig. 1, of the ringsupport and the downhold for clamping the ring upon the support while the ring is subjected to the action of a cooling medium. Fig. 3 is a lower end view of the downhold; and

Fig. i is a sectional detail of the mechanism shown in Fig. 2, omitting the sustaining-arm, but taken on a plane at right angles to the line 2 2 of Fig. 1 and showing the downhold in clamping or operative position.

I have herein shown my invention as embodied in a machine such as is illustrated in the patent hereinbefore referred to, with such changes and rearrangement as are made necessary by the novel features of my invention.

Referring to Fig. 1, the frame 3, of suitable shape to sustain the operating parts, the inclined arm 6 thereof, which carries the support upon which the ring is clamped, the sliding carrier 7, longitudinally reciprocable in said arm, and the actuating means therefor,

consisting of the lever 15, 17 fulcrumed at 16 tor contained in a pan 34, carried by an arm 35, fulcrumed on the frame at 36 and connected by link 37 with a lever 38, (see dotted lines, Fig. 1,) fulcrumed at 39 and having a roll 44 to cooperate with the cam 45, whereby the pan will be raised-to operative position at the proper time, all as in the patent referred to.

Referring to Fig. 2, the lower end of the arm 6 has bolted to it a base 61, provided at its opposite side with grooves 62 to receive a flat plate 63, having upon it acylindrical support 64, preferably of a diameter equal to that of the external flanges 7'0" of the ring, the lower flange, as)", of the ring resting securely upon the support. Upright guides 65, inturned at their upper ends, are erected upon the plate 63 diametrically opposite each other to receive the lower ring-flange between them and to overlap the same, as shown in Fig. 2, to position the ring on the support and prevent its lateral movement. A ring-stop to limit movement of the ring when slid onto the support will be described hereinafter. The lower end of the carrier 7 is herein shown as made tubular at 66, Figs. 2 and 4, to receive an elongated sleeve 67, enlarged annularly at its lower end at 68 and interiorly beveled or coned, as at 69, the enlargement 68 having a sliding bearing on the part 70 of the arm 6. A strong spring 71 is inserted in the tubular end of the carrier 7 and bears against the upper end of the sleeve 67, the latter being slidable longitudinally in the carrier and being held from rotation therein by a stud 72, Fig. 4, entering an elongated recess 73 in the sleeve. A downhold to engage and clamp the ring on the support is supported in the sleeve 67 and has a slight relative movement longitudinally,

as will be explained, the downhold having a bearing at its upper end in the sleeve at 74. I have herein shown the downhold as a tube 75, having an enlarged annular foot 76, externally coned at 77 to cooperate with the beveled face 69 of thelower end of the sleeve 67, the foot being made radially compressible by longitudinal slots 78 in the downhold and extending from the lower edge of the foot upward the greater length of the tube 75. The interior of the foot is shaped to present an annular seat 79, and below the seat the foot presents .1 depending circular wall 80, interrupted at intervals by the slots 78.

WVhen the downhold is moved into operative position, the seat 79 engages the top of the uppermost flange a of the ring, as shown in Fig. 4, and clamps the ring firmly upon the support 64, and the slight additional descending movement of the sleeve 67 causes the edge 69 to slide over the surface 77 of the downhold-foot 76, compressing the foot, so that the circular wall 80 firmly embraces and grasps the peripheries of the flanges r and a" of the ring. (See Fig. 4.)

In Fig. 2 the parts are in position for re- 5 ceiving a ring, and it will be supposed that a ring has just been positioned on the support, a stud 81, fastened to the foot of the downhold, projecting downward in the path of the ring to stop it in proper position between the guides 65. The lower ends of the two opposite slots 78 of the downhold, which receive the guides 65, are preferably slightly beveled or flared at 78 Fig. 3, to readily receive the inturned upper ends of the said guides when the downhold descends.

In Fig. 1 a suitable furnace for heating the rings is shown at 82, and from the outlet or door 83 an inclined guide-chute 84 extends toward the arm 6, terminating at short dis tance therefrom. In the open end 61 of the arm a transverse strip 85 of metal is inserted at the level of the support 64 to partly bridge the space between the end of the chute 84 and the front of the ring-support.

The heated rings are directed from the furnace one by one to the chute, and the rings slide down the latter across the bridge-piece 85 onto the support 64, the ring to be treated being positioned thereon by the guides 65 and the ring-stop 81. The carrier-actuating mechanism is thrown into operation as in the patent referred to, and with the parts in the position shown in Fig. 2 the descending carrier acts through the spring 71 to move the sleeve 67 downward, carrying with it the downhold, until the seat 79 engages the top of the upper flange '1" of the ring, while the circular wall 80 surrounds the peripheries of the flanges. IV hen the downhold-seat engages the ring, the movement of the downhold is arrested; but as the carrier continues to descend the spring 71 is compressed, and it thereby forces the sleeve 67 down, so that the coned face 69 presses against the conical surface 77 of the compressible foot 76 and causes the latter to close tightly upon the peripheries of the flanges. In Fig. 4 the parts are shown in such position, the ring being firmly clamped upon the support 64 with the foot 76 tightly gripping the peripheries of the flanges. The pan 34, containing water or other cooling liquid, is now raised by means of the cam 45 and intervening connections, as in the patent referred to, and the clamped ring is immersed in the cooling-bath, the liquid entering the downhold through the slots 78 and acting upon the unobstructed inner surface of the ring and also upon the outer surface of the web and the adjacent surfaces of the flanges. The proper parts of the ring are thus hardened, and the pan 34 then returns to normal position, (shown in Fig. 1,) while the downhold and cooperating parts rise, releasing the ring, the sleeve 67 moving up to permit expansion of the compressible foot and the downhold being lifted by means of a transverse pin 86, carried by the sleeve and extended through elongated slots 87 in the upper end of the downhold. When the downhold rises, the inturned ITO heads of the guides hold the ring down and clear it from the downhold, the full operative position of the latter moving the ring-stop 81 into a hole 81 in the plate. (See Fig. 4.) As the carrier rises the part 13 of the cam 13 gives an additional rise to the carrier to lift the ring-stop above the ring and also to operate a knock-off device. The knock-off device is shown in Fig. 1 as an arm 88, fulcrumed at 89 on the side of the arm 6 and having a depending finger 90 secured to its outer end, a spring 91, attached to its inner end, serving to normally maintain the arm 88 in inoperative position. A short link 92 is pivoted at 93 on the carrier and has an elongated slot 94 entered by a pin 95 on the arm 88 between its fulcrum 89 and the point of attachment of the spring 91. When the carrier is given the additional upward movement referred to from the position shown in Fig. 1, the link 92 quickly rocks the arm 88, causing the finger 90 to move downward and rearward against the ring on the support (34:, hitting the ring a quick sharp blow, and thereby knocking it off the support. The carrier then returns to the position shown in Fig. 1, and the apparatus is in readiness to act upon another ring.

The sleeve 67 and its enlarged end 68, provided with the conical or beveled face 69, constitutes means to compress the foot of the downhold upon the peripheries of the ring flanges.

\Vith the apparatus herein shown the rings may be transferred directly from the usual bone chests to the heating-furnace 82 and fed therefrom to the mechanism for clamping and immersing, the proper hardening temperature being attained in the furnace.

Having fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

.1. In apparatus for hardening spinningrings, in combination, a support for the ring, a hollow downhold to engage externally and clamp the ring on the support, means to effect relative movement of said downhold and support toward and from each other, and means to introduce automatically through the downhold a cooling medium to act upon the interior of the clamped ring.

2. In apparatus for hardening spinningrings, in combination, a support for the ring, an annular, apertured downhold to engage externally'and clamp the ring on the support, means to move the downhold toward and from the latter, and means to introduce a cooling medium through the apertured downhold and subject the interior of the ring to the action of such medium.

3. .In apparatus for hardening spinningrings, in combination, a support for the base of the ring, a slotted downhold movable toward and from said support and adapted to engage the top of the ring and clamp it on the support, and means to subject automatically the clamped ring to the action of a cooling medium, the latter passing through the slotted downhold to the unobstructed interior of the ring.

1. In apparatus for hardening spinningrings, in combination, means to clamp the ring at its upper and lower ends, leaving the interior thereof unobstructed, and means to effect automatically immersion of the ring while clamped in a cooling medium.

5. In apparatus for hardening spinningrings, in combination, a support for the base of the ring, means to act externally on the ring and laterally position it upon the support, a reciprocating downhold to engage the ring externally and clamp it as positioned on the support, and means to subject automatically the unobstructed interior of the ring while clamped to the action of a cooling liquid.

6. In apparatus for hardening double-flanged spinning-rings, in combination, a supportjfor the bottom of the ring, a downhold to engage the top thereof and the periphery of its outer flange and clamp the ring on the support, means to effect relative movement of the downhold. and support toward and from each other, and means to subject the unobstructed interior and the exterior of the clamped ring below the held portion of its outer flange. to the action of a cooling liquid.

7. In apparatus for hardening double-flanged spinning-rings, in combination, a support for the bottom of the ring, a reciprocating, radially-compressible downhold to engage the top and the periphery of the adjacent outer flange of the ring, means to compress the downhold upon the periphery of the flange, and means to effect immersion of the ring in a cooling medium While so clamped and held.

8. In apparatus for hardening double-flanged spinning-rings, in combination, a support for the bottom of the ring, a tubular downhold having a radially-eompressible, annular foot, means to move the downhold onto the top of and clamp a ring on the support and to compress the foot upon the periphery of the adjacent ring-flange, and means to subject the ring interiorly and exteriorly to the action of a cooling liquid while the ring is clamped.

9. In apparatus for hardening reversible, double-flangedspinning-rings,incombination, a flat support for the bottom of the ring, a downhold having an annular seat to engage the top of the ring and a depending, annular and radially-compressible foot to embrace the peripheries of the top and bottom external flanges of the ring, means to operate the downhold to clamp the ring on the support and compress the annular foot upon the peripheries of its flanges, and means to effect automatieally the immersion of the clamped ring in a cooling-bath.

10. In apparatus for hardening spinningrings, means to externally engage and clamp the ring, and means to automatically subject the interior of the ring While clamped to the action of a cooling liquid.

11. In apparatus for hardening spinningrings, means to engage the top. and bottom of the ring and the peripheries of the external flanges thereof, and means to automatically subject the free internal and external portions of the ring to the action of a cooling liquid.

12. In apparatus for hardening spinningrings, a support adapted to sustain a ring, guides to position the latter on the support, a reciprocating, longitudinally-slotted tubular downhold having an annular seat to engage the top of the ring, and a depending foot on the downhold to embrace the outer periphery of the flanged portion of the ring, means to compress the foot about such portion, and mechanism to automatically effect immersion of the ring While so held in acooling-bath.

13. In apparatus for hardening spinningrings, a support adapted to sustain a ring, guides to position the latter on the support, a chute to direct the rings onto the support between the guides, a reciprocating, tubular doWnhold to engage the exterior only of the ring and maintain it on the support, and means to introduce a cooling liquid to the unobstructed interior of the ring through the downhold.

14. In apparatus for hardening spinningrings, means to externally engage and clamp the ring, means to effect automatically the immersion of the clamped ring in a coolingbath, and a knock-off device to remove the ring after such immersion.

15. In apparatus for hardening spinningrings, a ring-support, guides to laterally position a ring thereupon, a doWnhold to engage the top and external flanges of a ring and clamp it on the support, a ring-stop depending from the doWnhold to stop the ring in proper position With relation to the downhold, means to reciprocate the latter, and means to efiect automatically immersion of the clamped ring in a cooling-bath.

16. In apparatus for hardening spinningrings, a ring-support, means to position and prevent lifting of a ring on said support, a downhold movable toward and from the support, to clamp the ring on the latter, means to automatically immerse the clamped ring in a cooling-bath, and a knock-off device to discharge the ring from the support after imv mersion in the bath.

In testimony WhereofI have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

CHARLES E. N UTTIN G. I/Vitnesses:

GEORGE OTIS DRAPER, ERNEST W. VVooD. 

